The stars aligned and I went to Chile
Well, just got back from one of the most memorable trips I’ve
ever take. One of the shortest also: 48 hours of travel and 72 hours of stay.
Totally worth it. So let me tell you a little about why I would fly halfway
across the world for so little time...
Families can be together forever, that’s why. Let’s jump
back to fall of 2011. While serving on my mission for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints in Mendoza Argentina my companion (Hermana) Cynthia
Dana Ferreya and I were headed to our apartment around 9pm and were walking
through “Centro” San Rafael, a small town in the Mendoza province. I saw this
cute family window shopping and decided to stop and introduce myself.
“Hola soy
una misionera de La Iglesia de Jesucristo De Los Santos de los Últimos Dias” I
said,
“Hi how are you” they responded enthusiastically in English.
“Oh hi! You speak English! That’s awesome. How about we share
with you an important lesson in English?”
This is the "sacred square", or corner we first ran into Familia Navarro.
So I continued to talk to them, in English, and asked them
if we could come over later to their house and teach them about how families could be together forever (and help them refresh their English at the same
time). They agreed and we stopped by the following day. No success. We went by
later that night. No one. We felt so strongly about this beautiful family so we
stopped by multiple times during the day for a few days til we found Matias,
their older son washing the car outside. Later we went in and met the
incredible Familia Navarro: Gustavo and Virginia (who had lived in the states
for a few years), son Matias (18 yrs old), Luna (7 yrs old), and Morena (4
years old). I had never seen such a faithful and God loving family before. A
few weeks later they were baptized.
October 29, 2011, San Rafael Mendoza
But that’s not where it ends. Baptism is just the
beginning of our road to follow Christ. They had some very difficult personal,
financial and family trials. Very hard. Things in San Rafael weren’t going
well. Gustavo was laid off and couldn’t find any work in Argentina’s struggling
economy. They had to sell everything they owned and move to Chile in hope for
better opportunities. They found the church there again in Valpariso and began to rekindle that goal of going to the temple and being sealed as a family forever.
When we get married civilly (which is still very important)
they say “to death do us part”. Why part at death? Why have families and
relationships if they are going to end. I don’t believe God wants it to be that
way. That is why, in the temple, we can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. It’s a holy ordinance that we perform in God’s holy temples,
temples like the ones in the Old and New Testament.
So via Skype and other messaging apps the Navarros told me
they had a temple date. Nothing makes me more happy than hearing that! And wow it wasn't without much prayer and fasting and worrying for them. It means
this precious family was living the gospel and wanted to receive God’s
blessings. There have been three other families we had an opportunity to teach
that have been sealed in the temple but I had not been able to go to. I wouldn’t
miss this one. I called Cynthia and told her that we had to go.
So in the middle of full time work, full time summer school,
church callings and volunteer work, I put it all aside and was able to go. Financially
it was a miracle I made it, I finished my homework and tests before I left
(mostly), and my boss said it was fine and supported my decision to go. What?
Did that just happen? I am one super lucky girl.
I flew into Santiago (after stopping in LA, Peru) and landed
at 5am. Exhausted and in a foreign airport I bear-hugged by lugged and slept
with one eye open until Cynthia got there. One awesome sister from the Church
came to pick us up and we took a bus, subway, and walked about 30 blocks until
we made it to the Santiago Chile Temple (all with dragging our luggage of
course, felt like the mission). Seeing them and running and hugging them was
like no time had passed. Their ward members were there and we all cried tears
of joy. The sealing ceremony was priceless. Morena (the youngest, now 6) was
crying because she felt so happy and couldn’t explain it. Made me remember how
young children have such a special spirit. We all piled in the car afterwards
and headed to Valparaiso (about 2 hours away).
We stayed in their
house and had a grand time. It’s amazing to remember how blessed we are in the
states and we have so much. They showed us around the awesome port town, and we went to church on Sunday. There are sometimes when you meet people in your life that you know you've know before sometime in Heaven; the Navarros and Cynthia Ferreya are some of those for me. They have gone through some of the hardest trials I have ever seen and been a huge example to me.
So the trip was priceless. (I made it home alive which included 3 bus rides through Chile and airport transfers by myself which is also a small miracle). The world can give us such temporary happiness but God gives us real lasting joy. Joy is the biggest understatement of what I feel right now. I cannot be more grateful for the experience to serve a mission and the things I learned and people I met there. I cannot be more grateful for the plan Heavenly Father has made for us to live in families and friend forever if we chose to. Life is hard and bad things happen sometimes, but very often the Lord is just waiting around the corner to give us a miracle or something incredible if we have faith and patience. And sometimes those miracles are eternal, just like this.
